Ideally the pipes never need replacing. If you are having problems already it is because the person who replaced the pipe must have taken some shortcuts and did not do the job properly, or the problem is inside the house.

: A few days ago I wrote a message about automatic flushing, etc. Since I wrote that,things have done downhill fast. One toilet overflows. The other automatically flushes when I run the washing machine. Now my kitchen sink is stopped up. My husband put sulfuric acid in the sink, which did little or no good at all. My house is about 40 years old.

: It has only been about 2 years since the underground lines to the city drainage system were replaced, and these were some of the same signs. Just prior to that, the system had been snaked from the roof down.

: What are we doing wrong? What can we do on an ongoing basis to be sure that we don't have expensive plumbing problems every few months?